Here’s a cautionary tale and a clear health warning – from faraway Uganda.  North Americans take note.  According to a study reported in The New Vision of Kampala, physicians there appear to be as concerned about the heart health of Ugandans as our own doctors are about us in the Western world.

Researchers from the Mbale School of Hygiene say Uganda’s growing urban population now bears the brunt of increasing rates of chronic illnesses such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes as they follow a shift away from Uganda’s traditional and unprocessed diet. Foods like luwombo (stuffed banana leaves), dodo (wild greens), cassava (yam-like tubers), potatoes, fish, atapa (millet bread) and malewa (bamboo shoots) are consumed less frequently today than the more Western diet of high salt, high-sugar and high fat processed foods. Some of the most popular big city foods now include fried potato chips, burgers, hot dogs, pickles, pizzas, salty pretzels, sausages, and red meats with high levels of saturated fat. Sound familiar? Continue reading “Heart-smart eating advice from Uganda” →

Now here’s my kind of research study:  a U.K. university is looking for 40 women to find out if eating Belgian chocolate every day might help diabetics ward off heart disease.

The University of East Anglia, in its first round of this project, studied 150 women to assess the potential health benefits of eating dark chocolate.

Dr. Peter Curtis, of the UEA’s School of Medicine, says: “Our first volunteers are about to return for their final visit to see if the markers of heart health, such as blood pressure and cholesterol levels, have changed. A successful outcome could be the first step in developing new ways to improve the lives of people at increased risk of heart disease.” Continue reading “Wanted: volunteers to eat chocolate every day for U.K. study” →

by Carolyn Thomas

“Eat food, not too much, mostly plants.” That is the supremely simple healthy eating advice from In Defense of Food: An Eater’s Manifesto by Michael Pollan.

“Another piece of advice from my book is: don’t eat any food that comes with a health claim,” adds Pollan, a journalism professor at the University of California at Berkeley.

“It sounds counter-intuitive, but if you’re worried about your health, that is not the healthy food. The healthy food is in the produce section. It’s sitting there very quietly, without budgets for marketing, without packages to print health claims on. ”

My favourite heart-smart advice from Pollan:

“Simply don’t buy any food you’ve ever seen advertised. The broccoli growers don’t have money for ad budgets. So the real food is not being advertised.” Continue reading “Don’t buy any food you’ve ever seen advertised” →